How to Handle Shipping From Multiple Suppliers

I'm new to drop shipping. I'm wondering how to handle a customer order that will require shipments from multiple suppliers. It doesn't seem like a good customer experience to receive an order in pieces. Is it best to avoid using more than one supplier for a particular product to avoid multiple shipments? Should the customer be made aware that it's very likely their order be broken up and arrive separately?

It is an issue for sure and there really isn't many options around it. You could of course have everything sent to you firstly, then repackage and on-send as one package, but of course you have extra shipping fees involved and you can't send until the last of the order arrives, so that could well be a longer delay for your customer.

I think the best option is to use multiple suppliers if you find more than one you want to work with. Of course each supplier may offer different shipping times, so as long as you provide that information within the relevant listings, the customer will be aware that different purchases have different shipping times.

You can also reinforce that to them at the time they place the order, just to ensure their expectations don't exceed the reality of the order.